Frequently Asked Questions: Volunteering and Internships

If you are serious about learning Spanish or getting the most out of your trip abroad, we recommend volunteering or interning in a Spanish-speaking country. This is a great way to get hands-on experience in the Spanish-speaking world in a professional setting and a great resume boost! Here is some more information.

The main thing is that you want to work. There are just a few technical details such as: you must be older than 18 and younger than 35 to do an internship, a B1 level is required for volunteering and for internships in hotels, a B2 level for general internships. For internships in hotels you must a European citizen and/or majoring in tourism while doing the internship.

To ensure your Spanish is adequate for the work you will do in the charitable organization, the program requires that you first complete a 4-week Intensive Spanish course. You must have at least a B1 level, although some projects require a higher level. The course assures the organization that you have the required language skills to interact efficiently in your new environment, but most importantly, it allows you to see the different projects and to choose the one that most interests you.

We strongly advise you to remain flexible when choosing your preferred volunteer program as they can change at short notice, and indeed, new programs are added continuously. For that reason, at the time of booking it is not necessary to specify the program you hope to participate in, only the general area in which you wish to volunteer. Then you can select the exact project during the language course period of your stay.

Also, it’s often possible to prolong your volunteer period for longer than the minimum 4 weeks. This is something you can work out with your coordinator once you are doing your course.